This invention relates to improvements in a food slicing and bagging apparatus for simultaneously slicing and bagging substantially flat food products having a frame and a food product holder which conforms to the shape of the food product and thus holds the food in vertical stacked alignment for slicing. The holder is removably attached to the frame and has at least one slicer faced toward the food products to be sliced. Further this invention relates to a ram having recessed sections on its surface for conforming with the slicer which allows the ram to completely drive the food products through the slicer and not contact the slicer. Also, this invention further relates to having a coordinated follower which co-ordinates with the ram movement and is located below the slicer a small but effective distance for receiving the food products as they are sliced. The coordinated movement of the follower and the ram maintain the small but effective distance from the slicer to prevent the food products from being flayed out of vertical stacked alignment as it is sliced. Also this invention has a bagging apparatus for progressively bagging the food products sliced. In at least one embodiment the food products are tortillas.
While it is old in the prior art to provide various forms of slicing apparatus or equipment, most of these apparatuses were designed to slice the food products and drop the food products into a collection system directly below the slicer and there was no concern in the prior art for the orientation of the sliced products as they were sliced and dropped into the collection system. The prior art usually provided separate machinery and apparatuses to align the products that had been sliced and dropped below to the collection system.
In at least one type of food to be sliced i.e. tortilla, the food is semi-cooked into flat circular disks and they are fed from the ovens and stacked. In the prior art they were stacked and sliced, by various means ranging from hand held and powered slicers to mechanical slicers. However, in the prior art they were sliced and then dropped onto conveyer belts and delivered to bagging operations. In this prior art, however, in the dropping of the food products as they were cut, the cut pieces were turned in many directions i.e., flayed and thus required the bags to be quite large to accommodate a significant volume of the food products because of their unordered orientation in the bags.
Further, by being turned over and flayed completely by the prior art slicers, they were exposed to air and had a tendency to dry out and loose their freshness while in shipment or storage.
Also, in the prior art there has been a problem with slicers jamming, because at least in tortillas and pita bread food products, the product is very dense and slightly gummy when stacked for slicing.
In addition to jamming, the prior art slicers had a tendency to tear or unevenly cut the food products and leave jagged edges and cut pieces which were not a uniform size and shape.
Further, the prior art was also limited to slicing only small numbers of individual food product to be sliced either because of the jamming or tearing of the product if more than a few pieces of the product were sliced at one time.
Some of the prior art apparatuses turned the cut pieces of food product such as tortillas over because it was important that they were flayed and some air be placed between the cut pieces before shipment less they became stuck together and could not be separated for final cooking. In the prior art, it was a problem to both cut these tortillas and control their flay sufficiently for air exposure, but not so great an amount to create bulky storage which allows too much air to be placed between them and caused spoilage and staling.